Of Kings, Queens, and Magic 8-Balls
by DauntlessCandor
Summary: Her plan was quite possibly the worst one to ever come into existence. Oh yeah, and she'd most likely end up dead! Admittedly Edmund was right about that part, but she was far too proud too let him know that. But that was the nice thing about her love/hate/mostly-hate relationship with the "Just King," proving him wrong was her favorite hobby. Edmund/OC.


_Chapter One – When at Loss, Ask A Magic 8-Ball_

The Magic 8-Ball told her to "_Ask again later," _which was _so _not the answer she'd been looking for.

But what else had she expected? A nice, long explanation on how to get down from a tree with diagrams? _Wishful thinking. _She sighed. She wasn't quite sure how she even managed to get in this predicament. Admittedly the school's field trip to Bentley Forest was supposed to be an educational opportunity to catch a glimpse at nature and the wildlife the forest preserved. Lynn didn't really see the point in spending an hour in the bus just for _that. _If she wanted to see nature and wildlife she'd turn on the Nature Channel when she went home.

Unfortunately her teachers didn't agree with that idea, and instead sent her off with a four-page booklet full of boring questions that she could easily answer if her phone had internet access. _Google to the rescue. _At the beginning of the excursion, she had the sense to stick to her best friend, Jo – a member of Scouts, and apparently an expert at navigation. And unfortunately, also the Queen of Truth or Dare.

The game began, and ended with her dare. _Climbing to the top of a tree? Easy. Getting back down? Might've forgotten how to do that part. _Her first option, jumping, was quickly ruled out. The very reason she was stuck up the stupid tree was that the branches were too far apart, looking down to the ground to carefully try and place your footing may result in a slight dizzy, head spinning sensation if you weren't particularly fond of heights. Which Lynn wasn't. Yes, she was well aware that thinking things through might make her life a whole lot easier. But really it wasn't her fault, her pride was at stake!

Slumping down from where she half sat, half stood on the branch, Lynn peered down through the thick leaves of the tree, trying to see where her friends were, and hoping that they were gullible enough to believe that a meek plea for help was her "pretending" to be afraid of heights. _Maybe Mary might believe me . . . _she thought, _but there's no way that Jo would ever let me live it down._

No, asking for help just wouldn't do. She had a reputation to uphold! Even if it was a reputation only developed in a small circle of friends, and one that quite possibly none of them believed . . .

Which of course left one other option. Jumping.

Lynn took a deep breath. _I can't believe I'm actually going to do this! I'm going to die! I'm going to break my neck! I'm going to die! I'm going to die! I'm going to die! _She probably wouldn't die, but the more dramatic side of her did enjoy chanting it to add to the tension. Squeezing her eyes tightly shut, Lynn loosened her arm from around the tree, and pushed herself off the branch.

As it happened, she wasn't as high off the ground as she initially thought. But that didn't mean the landing didn't hurt. _Alright, so ignoring the fact that I probably could've landed on my feet if I really tried, I'm all good, _she thought as she brushed the dirt off her jeans and pushed herself so she was sitting upright. _Damn, I hope no one saw that._

She needn't have worried about that part. The forest was abandoned, the familiar sound of squabbling from other students that had previously echoed in the back ground was missing, and her friends were nowhere in sight. Lynn rolled her eyes and sighed in frustration. How did she know that they'd pull some dumb trick like this! _They're _hiding_ behind the trees, probably, _Lynn jumped onto a large twisted root that jutted out from the tree to grab her only possession – useless Magic 8-Balls not included – a red backpack that was only large enough to carry her tattered spiral notebook and a pen that leaked ink, and her jacket, which her mother had practically forced her into bringing with her, despite Lynn's arguments that the weather was supposed to be ridiculously warm that day.

"Mary?" Lynn called out as she adjusted the straps of her backpack so they no longer slid down her shoulders at regular intervals. "Katie? I know you're there."

She received no reply.

"Very funny," she took a few steps forward, half expecting everyone to jump out of the tree and scream '_BOO!' _because that's just something they would do. And she had her Ain't-Even-Bovvered-Lauren-Cooper-Poker-Face ready.

But no human figures appeared.

She took another few steps and called out once more. "Jo! Mary! Katie!"

There was only the sound of far off rushing water and a few birds chirping.

Lynn groaned. "Seriously! It's not funny!" She was getting annoyed at this point. The occasional lame-joke-haha-let's-hide-while-she's-not-looking she could handle. But that was only because someone – Normally Mary, who couldn't shut up for five minutes if her life depended on it – laughed or jumped out to talk to her. Staying hidden for a minute was a new record for them. And something about that made Lynn nervous.

"I bet this was your idea, wasn't it Jo?" she continued talking to the trees, more for her own comfort than to gain the attention of friends that she was finally accepting had abandoned her. "Hey Katie, tell you what, I'll give you my packet of chips if you come out now." No response. Which was _definitely _troubling if _Katie_, of all people, didn't respond to a bribe of food!

Deciding that enough was enough; Lynn picked up her pace and marched straight through the somewhat darker part of the forest, which was something she hadn't really been looking forward to. Maybe it was the Snow White phase she went through when she was five, but Lynn + Slightly Spooky Forest = Not. Going. To. Happen. _The things I do for friends, _she sighed as continued walking, _Venturing into some stupid forest. _So _not how I wanted to spend my day._

The walk wasn't exactly as bad as she thought, contrary to the ugly, dead look that Bentley Forest had on its brochures – which was where it was supposed to look _nice _– Lynn was surprised to find that the 'dark spooky' look it had wasn't that bad really. In fact, if she had to be ridiculously honest and somewhat cheesy, it was kind of beautiful. The leaves were that vibrant green that could only be found in paintings, and the tall trunks had almost no branches that she could reach, so she was perfectly safe from any mad desire to climb them and get stuck . . . again.

It was the sound of horse hooves that was the first break to her non-stop-talking-to-yourself nonsense that she'd been doing for the past half hour. At first Lynn couldn't really process it – a side effect of letting her best friend eat half of her sandwich and allowing the other two to nibble away at her Redvines – Lynn was fairly certain that the forest was just a nature reserve, and she didn't think that horses coming along and trampling on the 'beautiful' grass might not help.

Moving closer she saw that there were three people dressed like they were attending some costume parade. The two men wore shiny armour and judging by their heights, were the ones responsible for the horses. They wielded dangerous looking swords and they charged at each other without warning. Lynn almost screamed before realising that there was _no way _that they could actually be wielding real weapons. They couldn't be that stupid. Besides, the third member of the party seemed to be enjoying the fight. A small girl sat perched upon the branch of a tree, watching the fight with extreme interest, although she would occasionally cover her eyes with a sleeve from a dress that looked far too big for her. _Seems like the costume department don't sell things in her size._

Lynn didn't wince the second time the two men charge at each other. Now that she looked more closely she could see that their strokes were slightly more refined, it wasn't just ATTACK! ATTACK! ATTACK! There was an order to the way they fought, like they knew exactly what they were doing. _Which they probably do, _she thought, mentally face palming, _duh. There's probably some important historical sight somewhere near. They must be those tour guys who dress up all medieval-ey. _Lynn silently reprimanded herself for not thinking of this sooner.

While still pondering if she could interrupt the "sword" fight and ask them for directions back to the parking lot, or if that would just get her an angry glare for interrupting their performance, the actor that wasn't obsessing over plastic swords sighted her. The girl was young, a few years younger than Lynn and far behind the two wannabe knights. _Must be a family thing, _Lynn decided once she realised that the girl couldn't be old enough to be officially employed for a job.

The girls face lit up in childish excitement as she jumped down from where she sat perched on a tree. _Okay Lynnie, try not to be _too _jealous over the fact that some kid can climb trees better than you, _Lynn reprimanded herself with a slight smile at her mini-joke.

"Hello," the girl spoke so suddenly that Lynn, who was expecting the girl to be shy and not say anything, didn't really have time to remember what her reason for approaching the strange band was in the first place.

_Now what was it again? Oh yeah, my friends kinda abandoned me in a forest and now I need to find my school group, which I can't find even though we're the loudest group in existence and no, before you ask, I'm not interested in one of those medieval tours of places that I'm assuming you're practicing for, even if it is a reasonable price._

"I'm Lucy," the girl stepped forward and offered out her hand, but Lynn wasn't focusing on her anymore.

'Lucy's' movement had drawn the notice of the two knights, and in their curiosity had drawn their horses closer to get a better look at the conversation/awkward meeting that was taking place. Which Lynn would've been perfectly fine with. Except that the horses weren't horses. And the men weren't men. She'd heard of the term _centaur _before in a mythology book that she'd skim read in Grade 4 when she was bored. Some part of her registered that they _were not real, _and that this whole thing was _impossible, _and that for seeing this she was most definitely _mad. _And an even bigger part of her brain was screaming at her to run. But before she could do that shock took hold first.

Lynn had never fainted before, but she supposed there had to be a first time for everything.

* * *

**_A/N: _**_Okay, so, hi. You've managed to survive reading :/ Congratulations!_

_So, this is my first story and if someone who read it could give me some/any advice or their thoughts on it would be greatly appreciated._

_Okay, thanks for putting up with my not-at-all-interesting authors note xD_


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